yinjispace

DESIGNER
Ask og Eng
PHOTOGRAPHY
Ask og Eng
WORDS
Bingyi
Collection

The story begins with a kitchen.In 2016, Kine Ask Stenersen and Kristoffer Eng founded Ask og Eng in Drammen, Norway. It did not begin with a brand strategy or commercial ambition, but with something far more specific and personal: the desire to build a kitchen for their own apartment—one that truly felt right. During an architectural project, Kristoffer was introduced to bamboo as a material; at the same time, Kine, who has a background in environmental sustainability, became increasingly drawn to the spatial potential embedded within materials themselves. With almost no prior construction experience, they decided to build an entire bamboo kitchen by hand for their own home. It was at that moment that they defined the direction that would guide their work going forward—placing bamboo at the core, and responding to space with honesty, restraint, and a closeness to everyday life.

This story begins at The Studio in Mallorca. Following its thread, we move through three interrelated spaces: the studio in Mallorca, the workshop in Drammen, Norway, and The House, which functions both as a home and a showroom. Though geographically dispersed, these spaces remain closely connected through material choices, working methods, and ways of living. It is across these three distinct rhythms that Ask og Eng’s consistent approach to making gradually comes into focus.

If these three spaces form the physical coordinates of Ask og Eng, they can also be understood as three parallel modes of practice. The Studio in Mallorca offers openness and intuition; The Workshop in Drammen carries making and precision; and The House, built in 1868, brings design back to a scale shaped by daily use. Rather than attempting to “define” Ask og Eng, these spaces reveal its most essential qualities in a quiet and restrained manner—honesty in materials, patience in craft, coherence in rhythm, and a willingness, even in a rapidly changing world, to slow down and create objects meant to accompany life for many years.

The Studio is located in a renovated townhouse in Mallorca. It is both home and workspace; a material library, a prototype laboratory, and a place where daily life genuinely unfolds. Why Mallorca? This was the first question we asked. Ask og Eng had previously completed several projects across the Balearic Islands, and those early collaborations revealed the island’s creative potential. “Mallorca moves at a slower pace, closer to the land, and aligns more naturally with how we like to live and work. Norway remains our core base—our workshop and showroom are there—but as our international projects grew, establishing a presence in Mallorca felt like a natural extension,” Kine and Kristoffer told us.

Mallorca offers a different cultural and visual context—one that complements their Scandinavian roots with warmth, tactility, and Mediterranean openness. “Norway gives us structure and precision; Mallorca gives us openness and improvisation,” they explain. In Norway, they are grounded in rhythms shaped by the seasons and long-standing craft traditions; in Mallorca, the pace is more intuitive, more sensory, and more exploratory. Here, they spend more time experimenting, sketching, and allowing the material itself to guide decisions. The Studio feels like a return to the origin of making.

A day in Mallorca often begins with family rhythms: children preparing for school, breakfast, departures. When the house becomes quiet again, they drink their first coffee in the courtyard before beginning work—sketching new ideas, developing material samples, video calls with the Drammen team, or hosting visiting clients and collaborators. Evenings return to family life: cooking, playing music, and when time allows, walking or swimming. Here, work and life are not separate, but mutually sustaining.Within the Mediterranean context, bamboo is reinterpreted. No longer perceived as an “exotic” material, it becomes a sustainable solution responsive to climate, architecture, and lifestyle. The AE24 Studio Bamboo Sofa, developed in Mallorca, is an extension of this thinking—an object that seeks balance between Mediterranean openness and Scandinavian restraint.

Within the Ask og Eng ecosystem, The Workshop in Drammen is where everything is truly made. This is the heart of the studio. “Every piece of furniture and every kitchen begins its story here.” The space also carries a deeply personal history: the building once served as Kristoffer’s grandfather’s workplace. Today, within the same walls, the team continues to work by hand, using material as language, allowing a lineage of craftsmanship to quietly endure.

Housed in an old industrial building, the workshop often carries the subtle scent of freshly cut bamboo. The sounds of tools and machines echo through the space, while craftspeople maintain a steady, focused rhythm along long worktables. Structures take form here; details are refined millimeter by millimeter.

Over the years, Ask og Eng has continued to learn, shape, and build at a measured and deliberate pace. “We make things because we care.” In a world that is constantly accelerating, The Workshop represents another tempo—one that believes in patience, in material, and in the value of making by hand.

The House is located in Drammen, Norway, in a residence originally built in 1868. Kine and Kristoffer restored it with exceptional care and patience: adjusting spatial structures, reconsidering how light moves through the rooms, selecting materials that can age with time, and continuously responding to how life would unfold within the space.

The origins of Ask og Eng were born at home. Their first bamboo kitchen—made for their own apartment—not only transformed how they lived, but also established the studio’s material direction. In The House, the language of bamboo is fully expressed: the kitchen is clear and grounded in structure; living room furniture is soft and steady in line; bedroom storage systems are understated and restrained. Bamboo takes on different expressions in different rooms, corresponding to different rhythms of life.

“We care more about whether something can exist for ten years, or even longer.” For this reason, the house becomes a demonstration of a way of living and thinking—a slower pace, honest materials, durable structures, and furniture meant to be used again and again. There is no sense of over-design here, no pursuit of a photographic ideal. Everything emerges from observation of daily life: where light enters, where children choose to sit, which surface a hand touches first. They are not seeking beauty for its own sake, but longevity and appropriateness.

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